Desperately wants to protect suffering hero (8)
I believe the answer is:
achilles
'hero' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'desperately wants to protect suffering' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'suffering' could be 'ill' (suffering with illness) and 'ill' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'aches' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for achilles that I've seen before include "man with a particular weakness" , "Heroic Greek with damaged heel" , "Mythological Greek hero" , "Legendary Greek hero with weak heel" , "Warrior of old" .)